3 years ago today

it's 12:37 am. i should have been in bed eons ago.  but let's be honest--does one ever sleep the night before what is to be the biggest day of your life? i mostly doubt it.

3 years ago in August, a cute boy came into my equipment room, never said two words, just grinned stupidly while he picked up his equipment. I came home from working football practice.  it was the first night in the history of the world i had come home and OUT LOUD mentioned that i thought a boy was cute.  he had blonde hair and blue eyes and a big goofy grin.  after mom's shock was over, she told me that it might be best not to date someone in the middle of season just in case things didn't work out.....5 days later i woke up to a text message from a number i didn't recognize, from a boy oh so excited to have found my number.

3 years ago on September 16th, 2009. a black jeep followed me home from football practice at 7pm.  my heart nearly jumped out of my chest when i realized it was actually following me into my driveway.  and in it was that blonde haired blue eyed boy, with a big goofy grin on his face.  and he asked me to kiss him. i was so scared and nervous that i avoided it for what felt like ten years, then i finally gave in and swiped my lips across his in less than .02 seconds and quickly ran away like a fool.  the next week i watched a football game at his house.  he took another girl to homecoming and my heart nearly broke. then a few weeks later i began to wonder if i wasn't just a game to him. but i wasn't. cause...

3 years ago on November 4th, 2008, in the parking lot outside of the rockin r ranch after a varsity football banquet, that same blonde haired, blue eyed boy with that cute goofy grin walked me to my car.  told me i was beautiful. and before he closed the door of his jeep, he said the words, "I love you." and drove away.

3 years ago on November 22nd, at a giant 18th birthday bash in my yard, that sweet blonde haired, blue eyed boy brought me pink roses. with a card that read, "someone like you only happens once in a lifetime"

3 years ago, the day after Thanksgiving, I woke up to a text from that blonde haired boy telling me what he thought of me and how we should grow old together.

and

3 years ago today, on December 1st, that same blonde haired, blue eyed boy, with that silly, irresistible grin, sat me down on the couch in the living room of his mom's house and said, "i know the next 6 months will be uncertain, and we may be far away at colleges next year, but would you be willing to take a journey with me to see where it leads? will you be my girlfriend?"

and

here we are, 3 years later on the same day.  again ready to start a new uncertain journey together. the last few years have brought many changes and challenges, many blessings and opportunities.  and i know this new journey will be the same-but this time it is a little bigger, and i get to be the wife :)

I love you Joshua Zahn.  I love our crazy life, where we have been, and where we are going.  I am so proud to be your wife and share another whirlwind journey with you on a grander scale than before.  I am excited to take on this new challenge with you by my side, and to know that as we discover our journey this time, we will be doing it united as one.

Today I will marry my prince charming and begin a new life with my very best friend.  It may be a crazy life, but it will be a wonderful one, and it will be ours.  A life full of love. A life full of laughter.  Everyday. :)


xoxo,
Aly

The Engagement

The post you have been waiting for.......drum roll please........ we're engaged!

As you probably have guessed, our trip to California was aaa-mazing!  After much anticipation and countdown.... We'll need a little bit of background so we'll start from the very beginning of our trip!  Please prepare yourself for a 9 page post and picture overload :) sorry, it must be done!

Uncle Rob and Rhonda came down on Saturday and we had a big family party (at which Josh DIDN'T help me get the groceries and it bugged me... strike one, little did i know, this is where he informed everyone else on planet earth of his giant plan), we stayed up way too late playing wii, and got up wayyyy to early the next morning to go get breakfast before heading out on the road!  We had a blast goofing around in the car the whole ride there!  After we got settled in our hotel we took Rhonda to the beach cause she had never been before! EVER! can you believe this?! it baffled me since she is 30 something and has always lived in the US, so of course us beach loving people HAD to take her! i think we ended up at seal beach about 4ish in the afternoon, it was sunny and a beautiful 75! I had to laugh when Rhonda stepped into the freezing water and let out a scream, probably shoulda warned her that pacific water isn't too warm in march...or ever lol :)

After the beach we enjoyed a ridiculously hilarious dinner at BJ's, full of much too much adult jokes that are wildly inappropriate but extremely funny.....I'll let you guess where it all started since you know where we ate....ha :) 

On day 2 of our trip we decided to go to Universal Studios since 6 Flags sucks and isn't open Monday-Friday.  I had never been, so I was excited, and it was totally cool!

the boys and their mummy, which made them even more stoked to ride their favorite ride of course!

please note that shrek is loving on josh's head

no lie, we rode this thing about 14 times, rob lost his glasses, and the hotel key.  (sidenote:  Rhonda was also ridiculous about her purse this entire day, i have never seen a woman so tightly hold a purse under her arm ever in my life, especially one with a zipper and a snap and straps that leave it perfectly placed in your armpit.  nor have i ever seen anyone test a purse locker for a ride so vigorously....)

After a full day of adventure at Universal we had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden where much laughter commenced, so much so that we even had our waitress giggling! It was at Olive Garden however that we discovered that Rob's debit card was missing, so of course we frantically searched through everything trying to find the dang thing.  I offered to help, but everyone was like "Don't touch my stuff!" I thought they were all just a bunch of weirdos....little did I know they were all secretly plotting together!

Then on Tuesday, it was FINALLY time for Disneyland!  We met up with Wendy, Curtis and their 2 kids, Jalen and Kyle to start the morning at the park.

Wendy decided that we should go to the Finding Nemo ride first since that one always has the longest line and it was already a 35 minute wait at 8:20 am.  I was excited to go because the last time I had been to Disneyland the ride was just 2 months shy of opening, and I loved the movie so much and the orginial submarine ride as a kid that I had to go on it at least once!

After a short trek back to the ride Wendy asked us to please stand in front of the sign so she could take our picture..........my first reaction was "OHH, they are one of THOSE families that takes photos at every ride they go on to document every FREAKING second of their Disneyland adventure. It's going to be a long day."  But I happily obliged since they allowed just the man and I to be in the first picture together, ALONE, which almost never happens, so i was pleased.  Then she says, "that one didn't turn out so good, let me get another!"  and Rob and Rhonda also pulled out cameras to get one on my camera too, very sweet.  So we get ready for take two, but JZ was no longer standing next to me, so I look over to my left where he had just been attached to me at the hip, and he was on a knee.....it took my tiny brain a moment to process, but once I realized he was on a knee with a sparkling thing in a box, you could say i freaked out.  I don't know that the next few pictures really need any words, cause they pretty much captured it frame by frame. ( we are still waiting on the video which Wendy has on her camera, i promise i will post it as soon as i snag it!)

take one

the "oh my gosh" freak out

"I love you! Will you marry me?"

"YES!"

seal it with a kiss!

still freaking out, but very happy

He sweetly told me he loved me and asked if i would marry him, to which i immediately replied yes! somehow though, i forgot the part about needing to put my hand out for him to put the ring on my finger, so while still on a knee he kindly says "hey babe, i kinda need your hand." since my hands were still stuck over my mouth.....oops.  whats a girl to do when you nearly give her a heart attack in the middle of a crowded Disneyland?!  I don't hardly remember it, but if you watch the video you can see lots of people in the line for the ride clapping and hollering, even the line attendant was like "WOO! way to go man!"  Unfortunately some oblivious people walked right through the video, but i think you can pretty much see all the action, so it's okay!  After all of that craziness, I learned that Rhonda had been hiding the ring in her purse since I had left to get groceries and Josh had refused to go with me......those stinkers, they got me good!  Lucky for josh he wore his cargo shorts that day, or i probably would have noticed the large lump on his thigh prior to the ride! (sidenote #2:  about the time i had my second round of mono, i guess he got the rings and showed my parents, so they knew what was up, and they were all praying that i would get better before the trip and that my hands would stop peeling so that i could wear the ring.  then about 3 weeks before we left, i was helping clean josh's room, when i moved some stuff into his closet that i thought was just another bag of stuff like he has in the corner of his room already, but he got SO mad at me and told me i shouldn't have moved anything and if i saw something and didn't tell him that i would be sorry for lying. needless to say, i was highly upset since all i did was nicely clean the corner of his room and his heavy accusations felt uncalled for.  i guess i had picked up the gift bag that on one side says "Michael's Creative Jewelry" which probably would have been a dead giveaway had i been paying any attention....oops :) good thing he's got a blonde!)

Everything after that was kinda a crazy big blur, but it was OH so wonderful.  We had always talked about doing a low-key sort of engagement, i didn't want to be on a jumbo tron at some game somewhere, Disneyland on Spring Break with like 3 million people wasn't exactly a jumbo tron but it was close! somehow though it was all lost in the fairytale moment.  i have my prince charming, in the happiest place on earth, and i couldn't be a luckier girl!  it was definitely more than a dream come true!  immediately after as we were boarding submarine for the ride, 8 year old Kyle asks me if all of that business meant we were now married. of course i told him, not yet, we will have to have a wedding first.  then i said, "will you come to our wedding?" and he says, "well, i don't know, will there be any cake?"  trying not to laugh i said, "yes we will have cake there" and he replies, "okay well since there's gonna be cake i'll probably come, but if there isn't any, then i might not be there." ha oh kids!

the rest of our trip was absolutely amazing and SO much fun! we had a blast!  our vacation could not have been any more amazing and could not have come at a more perfect time!  I love my Joshua so SO much and I'm so thankful that we are now on the path to married life!  As you can tell there is never a dull moment around here, so i'm sure the craziness will continue as we begin our new journey together.  The big day will be December 1st, 2011, exactly 3 years since we began dating.  It seemed rather fitting to continue with the second half of our journey where it all began.  We will have a giant party to celebrate on December 2nd, 2011 and we will go on a honeymoon cruise the week following.  I will do my very best to keep everyone updated with our new stories and adventures as we get closer to a wedding, there is all sorts of exciting stuff going on around here! And hopefully soon we will even have some engagement photos up after our photo shoot with Ms. Nicole Burt! 

XOXO smile on :)

my sick puppy

my poor man has the stomach flu bug :( this makes me very sad cause i super HATE it when he is hurting and i can do nothing to help him feel better.  he at least made it through a good chunk of church...but that didn't last long lol. poor guy.  he is a rather cute little puppy when he is sick, though it still makes me sad, but he is oh so sweet.  he is very grateful for anything and everything you do for him.  and he is THE biggest cuddlebug there is.  maybe it was just the fever, but humor me, cause i loved it.  he fell asleep on me during the movie and woke up and  was cuddly all over again.  oh i love him!  but he nearly made me cry when he gave me that sad puppy fever face and put his arms around my neck and asked me if i would please stay through the night to take care of him.....oh he knows just how to kill me.  then he said i was the best ever and asked me if i would marry him and stay with him forever. :) i hope he is feeling better tomorrow!  he and dad both managed to get the stomach flu, and we think that it may only be a 24 hour dealio, but we'll see tomorrow!
on another note-we went to rachel's wedding reception last night-i am glad the boy went with even though he reeeaaaly didn't want to, but he is sweet and loving so he does :) it was a cute little reception and i am happy for them!
i hope everyone had a lovely weekend...filled with much less sickness!

backyard tacos and almost free ice cream

if you have never experienced the awesomeness of backyard tacos, i highly recommend it sometime. it probably sounds a little strange that people just randomly go to someone else's backyard for food on a friday night, but we like it so we do. why they haven't been shut down in 7 years, we don't know, but it's good food and it's cheap and no one has gotten sick or died yet, so its all good right? i cannot disclose any information about their whereabouts here...or else, but feel free to contact me if you need a good place to eat sometime.  after we had some backyard deliciousness (which we ate at gramma's house so we didn't have to be out in the chilly air) we went off to the coldstone for some icecream cause i have some buy one get one free coupons, heck to the yes.  so i think it came out to like 2.66 per person when i calculated quickly in my little head instead of the normal almost 5 or something like that. awesome! i told you i was gonna be the queen of coupons! and now i am sitting on the couch with my hunk of love.......well i am sitting here and he is half laying on my lap...and softly snoring.  he will hate me when he reads this, but i think it is incredibly cute.  he is a fairly peaceful sleeper. and he looks so sweet right now.  poor hardworking man!  he needs a good long sleep! maybe i will go make him a bed since he's staying here tonight.....or maybe i'll just leave him here on the couch since he's already out.  oh how i love him and his cuteness :)  happy friday everyone

proud girlfriend moment

okay, so this is probably gonna sound mushy and lovey...and well it sort of is in a way, but i just wanna take a moment to talk about my man. um yeah, you should probably get used to it or quit reading this blog since he is a rather LARGE part of my wonderful little life, and you will be hearing about him-OFTEN. i would also  just like to say that this post may sound mean in some ways, but i don't in any way mean to sound that way, so just a heads up.
so anyway....
we knew that there were going to be some big adjustments when the man decided to come home, which didn't really worry me much, i worried more about him.  one of my biggest worries was the lifestyle adjustment for the man, not to sound snotty, but he has been rather well cared for and to so DRASTICALLY change everything can be hard on anyone, especially those who are going through so much inner stress and turmoil. my biggest fear was the adjustment in lifestyle would make him regret his decision, i thought that adjusting from fulltime practice and school to fulltime work, and hard labor no less, would be overwhelming for him, especially since he has just been a fulltime athlete forever and has never had to wake up and go to work everyday.  but boy was i wrong.  he was so ready for this change, even more ready than i thought he would be.  he is even more ready than i was.  he wanted this so much more than any of us could have ever expected. and in these new changes, i have a newfound respect for my love.  he is so much stronger and more courages than i ever could be.  i am SO very proud of him.  he gets up and goes to work everyday at 5:30.  he works in a job with guys who are his complete opposites, and yet, he still has a good attitude, makes new friends.  he's even already moved up on the payscale in just 2 weeks.  to think i ever doubted that he could changeover so quickly makes me almost a little sad.  i should never have doubted that he knew all along what he wanted and what it would cost him.  it hit me today that this was so much bigger than what i originally saw with my little eyes.  i take so many things for granted and tend to be so naive.  but he obviously needed this so much that he was willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING. i don't know that even i could do that, but my joshua bear gave up his car, his freedom, his nicer lifestyle, all the things he's accustomed to, to come home and do what he needs to.  i am so amazed by him, even more now than before. and each day he continues to amaze me.  that boy is so very determined to DO on his own, and he has surpassed every expectation my narrow mind had set.
i am so very blessed to have such a strong man in my life, and i don't mean strength as in physical, though i won't lie, he is rather attractive with his big muscles. but seriously, he is so incredible. and i am so very lucky.  he teaches me new things everyday and opens my eyes to how much bigger the world is.  i can't believe that i'm the lucky one who gets to be with him.  and he is so humble about how awesome he truly is, so i make up for his humbleness by boasting and bragging about him here.  hopefully he won't mind....but who really knows since he hasn't yet discovered that this thing exists. but i don't really care, because my man deserves to know how much i truly love and appreciate him, since i can rarely find the words to get it out right.  i love you joshua!

zoolights!

we had so much fun going to zoolights this beautiful tuesday evening!  my whole family came along and we met jz and his parents there-we even had pretty good weather! i wasn't freezing with just a light jacket, so i consider that good since it's been so chilly the last few weeks!  we took SO many goofy photos so i'm not gonna post them all but i will share a few!  (for more, visit the "family fun times" album on my facebook page) please enjoy our goofiness-joshua cracks me up no matter what we are doing or where we might be. i love his goofy self and the fact that he isn't embarassed to do weird and crazy things with me! life is NEVER dull with that boy :)

here we are posing by some colorful cacti-we are rather good looking if i do say so...



we decided that we should pose like the monkeys that were hanging out here-these are our best monkey faces. what do you think?

here is my sasquatch josh.....copying the sasquatch in the trees haha :)

parentals-they are kinda cute

here are some handsome men just hanging out-my favoritest is the one on the left!

here us girlies are posing by the lake

yes-we went there.

we decided this is what our future kid will probably look like-and here we are showing it off. love it

here's my tiger posing with a tiger

here's joshua posing by the dragon in the flames-he was capturing some blaze like essence, but quite frankly this dragon is no UAB blaze

okay so this bull thing made me laugh and i asked the man to please make a face just like one so i could take a picture.....this is what i got. oh how i love it

and here is the last photo of the evening, love my love.

xoxo a

january 3rd, i love you today, even tho 3 weeks ago you were not really my friend

technically monday january 3rd hasn't happened yet, since i am like an hour and a half into what is considered to be january 3rd in this new year, but just humor me.  just 4ish weeks ago, my love was coming home for a 12 day christmas vacation, and would have left today for what will be the start of the off season in collegiate football.  i won't lie, i always cried on those days, even though that is majorly pathetic on many levels, but it was never enough time and it always meant that things would become harder again since there would be 6 hours of football, time zone changes, homework, school classes, work and a million and 2 other things. yes, i am whining about it, but i can cause i don't ever voice it to anyone really, well except for poor joshua lol. BUT i am happy to report, that instead of crying tonight as i left joshua's house, i had completely forgotten about it til he reminded me as we were about halfway home.  we will no more have to deal with the 1800 mile separation, no more time zone changes, no more football practices, no more 4-6 months between hugs or kisses, no more crying (well.......not over people leaving far away anyway, i mean, there are times a girl needs to cry, especially under the overwhelming circumstances we now face.). while there are some downsides, like no more girl time with miss leia, no more hanging out with jesse, and no more live football games or seeing my man in his football uniform, there are certainly more ups that i am looking forward to.  we are finally starting to settle into a routine, its sort of working, it's still a challenge between the distance across town between houses and the strangeness in work schedules, BUT, he's always here, i can always go to him when i need him, he always makes me feel better at the end of the day.  i say all of this, and you are probably thinking, "uh dude he's been home for like 3 weeks" well yeah, i'm probably a little bit overly excited, a little bit silly probably, but it makes me oh so happy, moreso than i can EVER ever explain.

just a quick note before i actually go to sleep cause i'm failing miserably on the "go to bed early and get up early" portion of my new years resolution, oops.  on saturday evening, mom and dad and the man and i went out to have a quick dinner (original destination was back yard tacos, but they were closed for the holiday, so we instead had delicious mexican food at the original tia rosa's in downtown mesa). we had a lovely time.  the man and i enjoy spending time with my parents, well i should probably ask before making such assumptions, BUT i'm guessing from the way he reacts and engages in convo during dinner, and shares his thoughts and feelings, and the fact that we never have conversations afterward that hint at the negative/annoyance end of things.  i love it when we have thougtful and deep conversations, especially those involving the future and its possibilities, i always get tidbits out of the man that i don't always get in our own conversation since thoughts from others provoke new thoughts of our own.  like last night my joshuabear was telling my dad about how much he can't wait to have kiddos. it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and my heart smiled a little and i took a drink of my soda so i didn't look like a dweebus cause i secretly just wanted to kiss his sweet little face and almost have a little tear. (yeah, i am overly emotional, a)because of super stress, b)because of superly overly hyped up hormones. they are driving me C.R.A.Z.Y. but we'll discuss THAT another day)
anyway......i am such a rambler geez, i'm sorry.  after our little dinner we went to see the lights at the temple. it is always a favorite of mine to go and see all of the beauty.  it was a little different this year since we normally go before the holiday actually comes and goes. but i won't lie to you, there was NO ONE there. it was glorious and very peaceful.  and i loved all the beautiful new lights they added this year. very fun. we met josh's dad and stepmom there and i even managed to make everyone take some pictures. maybe i should add that to my list of new years resolutions since i royally suck at picture taking and i always regret it later.  please enjoy! one of my fav's is the one of dad holding the wise men in his palm. oh i love the goofy peeps in my life :)

 here are the rents, not paying a single bit of attention to me trying to take their picture...

 ah yes, much better and much parental cuteness

 i just really loved these trees so you get a pictures of them

 hahah oh dad you crack me up



here is mom trying to walk a camel, our perception was a little off since we couldn't get any closer to the lawn!

here is my love-his dad literally got like 17 inches from our face for this picture with my camera....

here is josh with the parents....love it

okay short story, there was this couple making kissy faces under an identical arch, but the arch was half lit and they were, um not cute? so josh leans over and says to me, "we are so awesome" and i hear dad at the same time saying something to the affect of, "oh a little wedding arch" so we decided a picture was necessary, mostly because of the fact that we needed some cuteness, it was less about a spur of the moment wedding under a lighted plastic pvc pipe....

and here is the last one of the evening by my cool trees. i think we are rather cute and i rather much love it.

goodnight!

hello 2011, what do you bring?

well that time has come again to begin a new year. i'm excited, but a little apprehensive to be completely honest. there is always so much uncertainty....even though i trust that everything will all work and out and be great, there is always that fear in the back of your mind.  though i am usually a lover of change, lately i have been a little shy, though i have no real reason to be. i think maybe it is largely due to overwhelming amounts of stress.....

tonight i shall spend the evening with my man, doing nothing but enjoying each other, i am rather excited since this is a new opportunity for us. and we are loving it.  i am sure that this new year will bring us many of these great opportunities since he is now a resident of the desert once again.  last night we went on a rare date night. it was glorious, even in all of its goofy simplicity.  he is a very sweet and thoughtful guy. i am very lucky that is for sure.

though i am very unsure about what 2011 will bring us, i do know that we will make it through it and enjoy most of every minute of it. i have not hated 2010, though there was much unpleasantness in parts of it, there were also so many wonderful things about it.  but 2011 is looking much better and brighter....so far anyway lol.

i am excited about the potential for great things in 2011, there will be much opportunity to grow in business and hopefully better our futures.  it will not be an easy road that is for sure, since there will be much financial burden due to our current situation, but i think it will prove to be a great learning opportunity and many life lessons will be shared and hopefully overcome.

i'm not one for new years resolutions usually, i feel that you don't need a calender change over to a new year to have change for the better, but i do have a few things that i would like to improve on, and the first of the year seems like a great place to start those things.  some of these things include, better blogging, a positive attitude (which is proving to be a difficult one amongst the stress and annoyances of late, esp. the upcoming wedding situations which i don't want to deal with cause i'm feeling like its all very much unfair at the moment even though i shouldn't), more work, better saving, more learning, going to school and completing classes, finding new ways to love, spending lots of time with my man,  keeping things very clean and organized, being better about trusting in the Lord and finding new ways to let things go.  i'm sure there will be many more things i find to work on, but those are standing out most in my mind at the moment.  i would say i should also work on building better relationships with others, but right now that is a issue that has left me rather burned or scarred and i'm not particularly interested in that right at this moment, maybe with a little bit of time i will feel like that is doable again. 

i hope everyone has a safe and happy new year, i hope new opportunities will come, dreams will come true, much love will find you, and that there will be more happiness than tears.  i love the people in my life and cannot wait to share the new adventures of a new year with all of those who are sharing this crazy journey that is life.

Happy New Year everyone! 2011 here we come!

matching merry christmas

here are a few photos of me and my grinch! oh how i love him and his goofy self :)

Holiday Craziness

okay so i apologized for my lack of postings before with the full intention of having time to update said blog.....yeah well we know how well that worked out for me. ha. december is such a crazy month with all of the holdiay things going on, and on top of all of it i had work, made an emergency trip to the good ol birmingham, moved josh into his new place, wrapped 3000 gifts, baby sat my favorite kiddos, stressed out over everything under the sun, and then came Christmas. so let's recap my last month-i will try to keep it short, but no promises can be made as i have a lot to say about this crazy month.

so at the very beginning of the month, my love was struggling with the decision to keep playing football yet again, he's never been in love with it like soccer, and he has wanted several times to give it up and come home, but he always toughs it out and stays, convincing himself that he'll love it with all manner of creative excuses, some of which made me laugh. but this time he decided he really was going to come home. i will let you imagine how that went down........so anyway after all of THAT was over, dad and avery and i drove our buns to birmingham to pick up the man. somehow we managed to cram an entire dorm into a mini van and a g35. we are packing geniuses.  the trip was A BLAST (minus the ridiculously long 15 hour days of driving), avery and dad were hysterical, and then adding josh to the mix made it even funnier.  we ate lots of yummy southern food, said goodbye to our friends, nearly died at the vulcan from slipping on ice, froze our buns off, laughed until we cried, and of course drove until our butts were numb from sitting so long.  all in all, it was great, despite the less than lovely circumstances under which we were coming.  i will definitely miss birmingham and the new friends i made there, but we have decided we will come back to visit often (and after the little icy episode, i think i'm rather grateful that i won't be living there after all.....) once we got joshua home we moved him into his dad's with all of his stuff and he settled in quite quickly.  we have had a blast since he's been home-minus the 30 minute drive part and me having to always find a car since josh is currently using mine full time.

the week before christmas was chaos...as usual.  it was mostly enjoyable though we had some fairly large stressors in there.... on sunday we went to church and had lunch with bachan (josh's grandmother on his dad's side) and then we went to zoolights with sammy and his girlfriend jen. it was interesting. and the weather was nice, like 70 degrees nice lol. on monday we had dinner with Chris and Jihae and the kiddos. love em. they are superly awesome, made us feel a little better about our current situation too, which is always nice when you have good peeps to talk to. they are great siblings even though they are not officially mine. the rest of the week was just busy with cookies and family and people visiting and work and present wrapping. Christmas eve josh and i dressed in matching Grinch shirts for our family parties, first his dad's and then my mom's.  Christmas day we ditched the shirts and kindly wore nice church clothes, i'm bummed i don't have a picture tho because we did look rather dashing. Christmas morning was great with my family and then we headed off to the watson family christmas. it was good, but we were super tired and stressed after, so it was nice to be able to just relax.  i'm glad the kiddos liked their gifts tho, they are super fun to shop for and so hard not to spoil! 
oh and i almost forgot, joshua bear bought us a red wii for christmas, it is pretty cool if i do say so myself. it is currently living in his room at his dad's as i have no house or place to put it and we already have a wii in the family room, but one day it will have a place of its own when i have a place of my own....one day.

things seem to be winding down a bit, which is good, i'm looking forward to the new year even though it feels like it is coming too quickly.  i am ready to leave this year behind though. it has been nice, but a little too stressful lately and i'm ready to move past that.  however, i am not looking forward to the next 12 weddings we must attend, and NO that is not an exaggeration.  we know 9 couples who have been engaged in the last week and a half and we already had 3 other weddings to attend starting next week. so blah on all that. even though i should be congratulating all of them. in light of our current situation and the fact that once again we will have to wait because people are having issues and the fact that they are in complete control of the situation i'm rather bah humbug about anyone else getting married. i shouldn't be, but i am. especially those who have dated approximately 6 months and are getting married in 5 or 6 months. we know 4 of those. they seem slightly unfair. tho that is just probably my bad attitude talking since EVERYTHING seems rather unfair at the moment.  hopefully things will be brighter soon.

2 years

Yes, I do realize that this is december 13th and this post is 3 weeks late, but it has been a little crazy- so this post is dedicated to my love. On december 1st we officially hit the 2 year mark. And its kinda unbelievable to be honest! This has certainly been a crazy few years with all sorts of ups and downs. But they have all been so worth it! He is definitely pretty awesome to have such an awesome man. I am so very lucky to have him in my life, still don't know how I got him, but I love that I do :) thank you joshua zahn for an awesome two years, and I can't wait for many many more! I love you!

Birmingham Surprise Trip Day 5

Tuesday-the dreaded day of leaving. lol. i always hate leaving, and i truly have fallen in love with birmingham, so it makes it even harder to leave cause i've made friends there AND my man is there-it makes me want to stay! in the morning joshua had early practice, so i took myself to startbucks and watched the rain-it was more like a hurricane than beautiful peaceful rain and i had NO jacket and NO umbrella-and i was supposed to WALK to Snoozy's Bookstore up the street a half mile to meet my love after practice.......ugh lol, when it finally slowed down enough that i wouldn't get completely drenched and soaked i headed up the street, only to find joshua's car already in the parking lot-and he was an hour and a half early. i felt so terrible, so i went inside to look for him but couldn't find him anywhere-and my phone battery died that morning cause i forgot my charger......glorious. so i wandered the store cause i wanted to get some christmas presents there and about ten minutes later josh comes in and laughs because as i headed up the street, he headed down the street over to find me in the starbucks and then walked all the way back around to the bookstore hoping i would be there since he couldn't call me-oops lol. he got rained out of practice so he had been there a good half hour waiting out the rain too! dang rain! we did lots of shopping and spent too much money probably, but it will be worth it come christmas! after all of our shopping we went back to the dorm and had leftover casserole for lunch and watched some tv and then i helped jesse with his history paper! then josh remembered he had a video game waiting for him at the mall so he took me to see the mall and get the game-it was a fun little date! then shortly after i had to leave :( so he drove me to the airport and i didn't cry this time thank goodness-and walked inside to check my 2 bags, cause i somehow ended up leaving with twice as much as i brought lol. i got through ticketing quickly, but i discovered that the line for security check point was to the food courts...which means nothing to you if you've never been in the birmingham airport but it was LONG. and to my dismay i found that my flight was not at 4 like i thought, but instead at 315, and it was 245. i thought i was really gonna cry, but somehow i made it through the ridiculous line in only 10 minutes, and got to the gate only to learn that the flight was delayed a good half hour probably-such a bummer :( but at least i made it! i ended up stuck next to a lady who talked my ear off all the way to tennessee, through the layover in nashville, and all the way back to phoenix-i was more than happy to be off of that plane, but i was wishing i was touching down in bham again and not in phoenix lol. though my family came to get me and we all went out for wings, so it wasn't too totally terrible, and plus i was super hungry by then cause i'd had casserole a good 8 hours before and a bag of tiny peanuts on the plane-yuck. it was such a good trip tho and i'm SO so glad i got so much time with my boy! he even surprised me with an early birthday gift- a shirt -before i left! one he let me pick in snoozy's as a birthday present :) it is an awesome long sleeve with the blazer logo on the front and down the sleeve-i love it and i wear it often, he's the best! and he comes home in 4 weeks! SO excited!

Birmingham Surprise Trip Day 4

i think that Monday may have been the best day of the whole trip, even though it meant that i only had a half day left with my man. we met up rather early, instead of sleeping the whole day away and had some breakfast, then we decided that we were gonna go back to the Birmingham Zoo, just the two of us and spend as much time as we wanted! i only had my white long sleeve shirt this day because i'd worn all of my others, and wouldn't you know it-it was supposed to rain ALL day-thank goodness it was only a light sprinkle and that i had a black jacket to wear over! it had rained heavy early in the morning but it just continued to lightly sprinkle from like 11 to 3! we got to the zoo a little after 11 and there was NO ONE there. literally. we decided to hit all of the exhibits cause we had more time this time, and when we went to the "barn" which is the petting zoo, the girl inside said we were the first visitors they had seen all day! crazy! but we loved it cause there was no one and we could spend as much time as we wanted! i have no pictures of the two of us of course, but i do have quite a few of joshua playing with the animals! we walked the entire zoo and even got lost trying to find the "predator zone", but eventually we found it, but of course everyone was indoors because of the rain! several animals did make a quick appearance, so that was nice! and the lion came out twice and gave us several loud roars! josh really wanted to see the tigers but they were sleeping inside and never came out :( such a bummer! but we had SO much fun together! it was one of THE best dates we have ever had! and we decided that in december for our 2 years we will go to the Phoenix Zoo cause the weather will be gorgeous! and i just found out yesterday that they actually have koalas for a limited time til march! hooray!!!! joshua made me laugh the entire day with all of his funny voices and comments about the animals! the best one nearly killed me cause i couldn't breathe due to the fact that i was laughing so hard! towards the end of our day in the zoo we went to the reptile exhibits-it was a warm and toasty building so i appreciated it! the desert tortoise exhibit made us both laugh because they have like a jungle scene painted on the wall, a rock, a tortoise and a bunch of wood chips for the ground-ummmmm yeah lol guess they've never seen a REAL desert tortoise in its habitat! anyways so we oohed and aahed at the pythons and lizards etc, then we came to the komodo dragon room. when we went on saturday it was sleeping, but this day it was wide awake and running around its little home, we watched cause we thought it was way cool since we haven't seen one very active before, and it passes in front of us on it's way to the other side of its large cage, and just as it passes in front of joshua it totally craps right in the middle of the exhibit, and as if it wasn't goofy and funny enough, without any hesitation josh turns and says, "well, i can check that off my life list now...." and walks into the other room without even looking back. i nearly DIED it was so funny-it was so totally unexpected and random for him to say, but i loved it-he is such a funny man! and so quick with his humor! gotta love the boy! after the zoo we went to Moe's- it is delish. you should go there too. i always eat too much there, but it is just so yummy! not super cheap, but super yummy so it's worth the indulgence at least once a week i think-i know it will be a regular spot for the joshmeister and i. after our delicious lunch (at 3pm lol) we went to the store to get all of the things i needed to make enchilada casserole (josh's favorite-and now jesse's too lol) and ooey gooey bars (another favorite of the boys). i ended up making 3 casseroles (yes full 9x13 casseroles) and 3 ooey gooey bars (yes also 9x13 pans). i was SO tired and hot after spending forever in the kitchen! but the boys were helpful and it turned out yummy! we had lots of fun eating it together! and then the boys each whisked their own pans off to their fridges for leftovers so no one else in the dorm could steal it lol. jesse called on my birthday and told me to come back and make more cause he was out-and that i should move soon so i can cook more often :) silly boys-but they do love a home cooked meal! after dinner we all decided to watch a movie and i did some of joshua's laundry! and then we decided to have our ooey gooey bars for dessert and made ourselves miserable with all of the sweetness!

Birmingham Surprise Trip Day 3

Sunday was a rather lazy day of the vacation, Josh and i met up and had the left over Krispy Kreme's for breakfast, then we left to meet gramma and grampa but they had to cancel cause the weather was getting bad and they wanted to make sure everything was packed up so they could leave early in the morning. so josh and i went shopping at TJ Maxx and a few other places nearby and then we went to have some lunch, just the two of us :) it was wonderful! and so fun to have a date! after lunch we puttered around town some more wasting time til Josh had to go to practice!  we decided i should stay downtown, but everything was closing and i can't stay in his dorm without him, so i called leia and she and i went shopping and cleaned trey's apartment while they were at practice-well, we more like cleaned the clothes off the floor and then entertained ourselves watching cake boss and the food network-which was incredibly dumb cause we were both starving! after 4 and a half hours the boys were finally done! joshua and i decided to have some hungry howie's and rent another movie-this time it was Date Night with Steve Carrell-it was cute, not our favorite, but cute! then he and Jesse played some more video games while i made the shopping list for the next day's feast!

Birmingham Surprise Trip Day 2

On saturday Joshua and I went to eat some breakfast, then we just chilled for a bit and watched some tv til lunch time! We met gramma and grampa at Jim N Nicks-it is rather delicious and could put you in a food coma for sure-if you ever go to birmingham, or come to see me when i live there, we most certainly will be going! i had a HUGE, and i mean HUGE loaded baked potato with delicious bbq pork. the potato was like 4 regular potatoes combined, and i ordered the small!!! i am gonna be 700 pounds if i live there....anyway after lunch we decided to go explore birmingham a little bit, we went to some freedome trails park or something, then decided that we would go to the botanical gardens! but on the way to the gardens we changed our minds and ended up at the Birmingham Zoo! they were closing early that day but we still got a good hour and a half in and saw so many cool things! it was a beautiful zoo! way smaller than the phoenix zoo, but very pretty, especially with all of the fall colors-which we never have here in az, but birmingham has a BEAUTIFUL fall. loved it. anyway so the zoo was awesome and then we decided that we were all hungry again so we went to the Mellow Mushroom and had some yummy pizza, and i nearly exploded after that delicious meal-the Watson-Patterson-Zahn families feed me TOO much! its always delicious, but dang guys you're gonna kill me! after dinner gramma and grampa had to go take care of the dog and josh and i went to go hang out with jesse! the boys played some video games and we watched some tv! and watching the two of them together is quite comical! after games and such we decided that we were hungry, mind you it was like 1115 pm......yes i know it is terrible. and of all the things, josh decided he had to have some krispy kreme-so we drove a whole 15 minutes to get some krispy kreme for all of us-and i thought they would be closed-but no, the place is 24 hours and i'm not even joking, there were a good 50 people inside and we were 7 cars deep in the drive through......the peeps of the birmingham area must really love their krispy kreme late at night man!

Birmingham Surprise Trip Day 1

So technically Thursday was Day 1 of my trip, buuttt we're making friday day one cause i already named the other post, and i'm too lazy to change it :) so on friday, even after staying up til WAYYYYY too late, i was up at 730-which would be 630 back home-yes it is criminal i know-but that gave me plenty of time to curl my hair and do nothing for several hours til joshua was done with football practice. i even had time to put on sparkly eye shadow haha yay! after he got done, we had a quick bite to eat, drove around a little, then headed off to the park where gramma and grampa are keeping their motor home! gramma made yummy dinner and then we played uno for hours! it was so much fun! i don't remember the last time i laughed so hard playing a silly game! we had such a great time! it reminded me so much of playing games with my own grandparents and all of the fun times we used to have-i definitely miss it, and it made me a little sad, but i was so glad i got to have some fun moments with my man and his grandparents! after several million games of uno, we had some delicious apple pie and joshua was falling asleep practically lol :) so we decided to leave so he could go to bed early, but by the time we got back he was hungry again, but first he wanted to go to the store-so we did some shopping, bought some delicious starbucks, then he decided he was hungry and so was i, so we went to taco bell, then picked up a movie and watched it while we ate! random i know, but it was lovely! after that we decided it was bedtime so we would not be so tired the next day!

operation surprise joshua

okay so the "post the trip story tomorrow" thing worked really well....NOT. haha sorry for the delay-if you only knew the chaos that ensues the week prior to thanksgiving sheesh. so i don't really know where to begin, its all fairly long and complicated so i'll do my best to keep it short or maybe i'll decided to break this up into multiple posts-not too sure how i feel yet!
so wednesday i went for girls day with emily, as we already know from my airport post :) it was a blast, i think i almost had a heart attack 4 times on the way into the airport terminal, twice in security, another 3 times waiting in the gate for two hours and probably another 5 on the plane, but i felt much better after landing, though i'm pretty sure joshua didn't appreciate the 4 hour delay in text (he decided to nap right at 2ish, and my plane didn't leave til 4-hence the need for multiple heart attacks, cause i was sure he wasn't gonna believe my movie and dinner story, but he did, thank goodness :) ) sooo anyway i sat by some nice ladies on the plane, they were sisters and hadn't seen each other in nearly a year so listening to their stories was quite entertaining!  when i got off the plane, i ran to the potty cause i was shocked by the 50 degree weather after being in the warm plane, and just as i made it down the escalator my bag was almost all the way around the carousel-perfect timing! then i called miss leia and she and her friend morgan picked me up. as soon as i got in the car they say "so are you hungry? do you like mexican food?" and i did my best not to laugh because i knew they were just being polite, but i did have to say "uh, i live in arizona....of course i love mexican food!" i was a little iffy of course because how do you really find legit mexican food in birmingham alabama? i thought it was gonna be like taco bell or something lol but we went to a little hole in the wall place called "los compadres". it wasn't too bad-but it definitely ain't no REAL mexican food like we have here, but it will do in a craving situation for future reference. the salsa i'm pretty sure was canned, and those were DEFINITELY not fresh chips-dang we are so spoiled here lol. oh and i ordered the taco platter. um i don't know if you've ever had a taco platter here in the az but it usually comes with fresh tortillas, delicious meat of your choice and a whole lotta rice and beans. yum. unfortunately this does not happen in the birmingham-you do get three very yummy tacos, but you get like grocery store tortillas and some cheese and lettuce  bahahha :) but i had a lot of fun and i met leia's other friend john too and we all had a great time chatting-john was super curious about arizona, it is so funny to see people's reaction when you say you came from arizona-their jaws all drop and they all say some variation of "you came ALL the way from arizona!?" like it's the other side of the world or something lol. after dinner we went back to leia's house and talked for hours and finally went to bed! i woke up fairly early the next morning for me and leia and i ate breakfast-then tried to plan our day full of things so we wouldn't be bored til gametime at 7 pm. boy lemme tell ya it is no easy task to make a whole day go by when you are wishing it was later lol. we ate lunch and went to the park, and ran errands, and it was only 1!! killer. we had so much fun though! i'm glad we had a whole day to just hang! we went early to tailgate-like 430 or 5ish and of course all of the mom's were dying to hear the surprise story, which was sweet! then i met katie and her family and they gave me my ticket to get in-they are so super sweet! and they even stuck around after the game to see josh's reaction. when it was finally time to go into the stadium leia and i walked directly into gramma and grandpa and i nearly died right on the spot! but somehow they managed not to recognize me so we ran up the stairs to get a spot and sat about 15-20 rows right behind them, i could see them the whole game but they couldn't see me! the game lasted FOREVER! unfortunately they lost, but i had so much fun sitting with leia and trey's family! his dad is super funny! and i met so many new friends!
 here is a picture of me right after the game ended trying to avoid the guys on the field seeing me and his grandparents! they are right to the right of my shoulder in the blue jackets!

they had no idea! as soon as we took this we ran out the gates to the spot where the players come out and did our best to hide ourselves so that josh and gramma and grampa wouldn't see! after what seemed like ten years they finally came out and leia told josh she had something for him, he knew something was up cause one of the guys had said "your night is about to get a whole lot better" but he wasn't sure still. when he got to me his jaw dropped and he was like "wow" haha and he just kinda stood there for a little bit-i think we definitely got him good cause he had NOOO idea whatsoever, all he could say was "wow" haha :) that's an extra point for me thank you very much :) his grandparents were quite shocked to and didn't really know what to say but it was definitely fun! and so worth all of the waiting! thank you to everyone who helped get it all together! especially Leia and Jesse who helped me plan the whole thing!

exhausted.

okay, so this weekend was largely a success-even after the big scare of doom!  i am very thankful, and i had a super wonderful time and i super hate that i'm typing this from my desk in gilbert arizona. very much. BUT-it was a super awesome weekend, and i love my man, and i hate flying, and i super love birmingham, and i love date nights and i love the zoo and i love shopping at 10:30 pm, and i love making food for the boys, and i love listening to joshua sing in the car, and i love going out in the rain, and i love birmingham in the fall with all it's pretty leaves, and i love early sweet thoughtful presents from my boy, and i love when my boy gives me his too small t-shirts so i have a million to sleep in, and i love when he tells me he loves me and gives me a super smooch. and i do like being back home-a little. but not nearly as much as i love being in birmingham. and with joshua. BUT-there are only 4 more weeks til he comes home, in fact he actually has a flight home on the 16th of december at like 9am, so hopefully these next few weeks go fast!  i would post all of the awesomeness from this weekend, but to be quite honest, i am currently trying not to fall asleep so i can finish this post! so i think tomorrow i will write out each day's adventures and tell about how the surprise turned out and all the crazy fun things we did, and if i can figure it out, i may even post the video of josh's face cause it's pretty funny! unfortunately, i have zero pictures of the two of us this weekend :( sadness. but it's okay, cause it was still a wonderful weekend and i love him! goodnight!

A Trip Down Memory Lane....Sort Of

Okay so this is slow coming but I'm finally getting around to it-it's hard to keep up with a blog sometimes when life is craziness!  Anyway, so on Thursday Nicole last minute had an emergency and could not go work the Highland High Varsity Football game (why it was on a Thursday, I do not know, other than the fact that cox 7 was there and wanted to film everything, but they were largely a pain and in the way and I did not much appreciate having to work around all of their crapola), so being somewhat experienced at the same job, I told her I would cover for her......this was largely in part because I had NOTHING to do for the evening seeing as Nicole would not be around and Mom and Dad always go out for date night on Thursdays, plus Josh is kinda like 1300 miles away at the moment so that doesn't leave much for hanging out there, and I do believe he was on a "man date" as I would call it with his suite mate Jesse (who happens to be a very nice suite mate and he and Josh are super good buds and I love that!) SO anyways, I went to cover this game, slightly, okay more like incredibly, terrified because its been over 2 years since I have had to fix anything similar to a helmet and the mere thought of something breaking during game time gave me a heart attack so I was pretty sure I would surely die if anything were to go wrong....I probably would have survived seeing as some fire fighter people were there since there were fireworks, but still.  I'm pretty sure I shocked the crap out of most people cause no one knew I was coming and no one would have expected me, so that was kinda cool, plus I got to see so many teachers and coaches that I enjoyed working with when I was there!  I even saw Mr. Vincent, who is the sole reason that I became involved in sports! He's pretty much like a smaller version of my own father and I definitely miss working with the guy!  It was definitely kinda a strange experience since the last time I was on or near the game field was when I was still in high school and when I started dating Joshua.  Part of me loved it, but there was a part of me that felt way funny, I think largely in part because the players I used to know are no longer associated with the numbers I remember and because I only know like maybe 7 of the kids that are still there!  Thankfully nothing went wrong during the game, and I had some great conversations with old friends and teachers!  It was overall a very good evening!  I kept having strange flashbacks of all the times I spent on that field and all of those great memories, its so weird to think that it was really only 2 years ago, but sometimes it feels like it was 20 years ago with all that has happened in the last 2 years.  I don't necessarily miss all the sweat and stinky boys, but I do miss being so close to all of the action, and the great relationships that were built, and it will always be (yes this is preparing for cheesiness, so deal with it) special because it is where I met and fell in love with a very cute football player! :) 

My Love, The Stud

So anyone reading this blog obviously already knows that I love Joshua and that is pretty much enough of an explanation for this posting as far as I'm concerned!  My handsome man is the kicker for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and I would say he does his job well.  Yesterday UAB played UT- for those of you non-footballers, that would be the University of Tennessee (yes they are a fairly large school, and yes you often see them on tv, but who cares?).  So my handsome man did not have such a good game yesterday, and has been pretty down because of it, which is natural of course, but I happen to strongly dislike it because I hate it when he's hurting and I can't fix it for him.  And after games like yesterday, I pretty much feel like I have the award for "terrible girlfriend of the year" because I am across the country and not available to cheer him up with a hug and a kiss. Mushy? Maybe, but hey, I love him!  Somedays I wish he truly new just how special he is, but it seems that words can never fully convey that message.  None of his teammates blame him for their loss, and his coaches still have incredible confidence in him.  And he has incredible support here at home from his friends and famil-oh and me :) I'll probably be in trouble for this at some point, but I am going to claim it anyway: I am and always will be Joshua Zahn's number one fan and supporter in everything he does-especially football cause I love it regardless of the outcome (though I do prefer to win, and I much prefer shut out games because they are less likely to give me a heart attack, which I'm sure is well on its way since I'm pretty sure my blood pressure rises to like 800 when I watch any game, especially those that JZ is participating in! Part of me prays that he will not one day choose the NFL just for fear that my poor little heart will explode :) )  Though I think he is probably not aware, I look up to and admire him SO very much.  He definitely has a courage and strength that I wish to someday possess.  Regardless of the toughness of a situation, he always finds a way to pull through it and come out better in the end.  He is his biggest critic, so I know that next week he will come back bigger, better and stronger and learn from the mistakes of last week.  I am so incredibly proud of him.  He works so hard to be the best he can be.  He is so selfless and incredibly loving.  Moreso than most people that I know, even when he really doesn't have to be-for example, with me, especially when I'm a butthead and cause more stress in his life than is necessary cause i'm being a dumbo!  He is definitely wise beyond his years-which sometimes I hate cause he points out things that I never think of and he makes me reevaluate them, but he's usually right (don't tell him I said that)!  He has an amazing since of humor and NEVER fails to make me laugh in a day.  He can make any situation positive, he can make any bad day better and best of all he loves me just for me, all my weirdness and faults and even the freckles on my nose (which I happen to loathe with the deepest part of my being).  Though I'm sure many other girls who have a man would claim they are the luckiest girls, I'm pretty sure that I have one this contest over so don't even bother trying to top me, cause I'm pretty sure I'll win regardless of what you might say!  I am definitely incredibly blessed to have been given the gift of Joshua in my life, I won't doubt that any day.  I don't quite know what I did to deserve such an amazing man to love me forever, but I am certainly not going to question the big man upstairs and his decision making! (partially for fear that maybe He'll check his records and say, "uh, actually i meant to send him to someone else that day" and rearrange history, which I'm pretty sure can never happen, but still.....not risking it!)  If you are ever reading this Joshua, I hope you know how much I truly love you with everything that I am.  Thank you for making my life so wonderful, for bringing smiles and laughter and showing me true, real, and unconditional love like I have never known before.  You are more than I deserve and better than anything I could have imagined happening in my life. :)
Now enough mushy lovey stuff cause I'm sure everyone is totally over it by now! :) smile a little smile today and tell someone you love them too!

xoxo,
Aly

p.s. Here's a picture of my stud in uniform, courtesy of al.com-for those of you who care, that's Birmingham's local newspaper website!